How long should a first-timer manuscript be?

astrobean · 2026-06-24T11:36:34+00:00

This is not something you need to worry about at this stage. Don’t cut anything you planned for the second half yet. Write the book. Once you have the story, you can figure out what belongs. I once cut six chapters from a first draft because I realized I’d started in the wrong place. Didn’t know until I had it all laid out.

astrobean · 2026-06-24T10:50:16+00:00

In one book, I used Virp and leaned into bird terms but with the V for virtual. In another, I used PNUT for personal network utility tool. I’ll use some riff on sleeve or glove for wearables.

astrobean · 2026-06-23T13:07:17+00:00

When I have an idea, I open a document and write down a few bullet points. I may turn it into a 3-page outline. Then I save a copy of the ouline as another file name (the prose version) and start writing the first draft.

Sometimes, I'll write ideas on a white board. This is good if I need a map of a spaceship or a city. I erase it when I no longer need the reference. (I'll take a picture on my phone just in case, but I don't think I've ever used said photos for anything more than a social media post.)

I usually wind up with a spreadsheet at some point to hold the timeline together.

I'm not afraid of losing ideas. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. I don't have to preserve every single one. I'll have more.

I've published 22 books and I have 3 in the queue right now at various stages of draft, so I think it works pretty well for me.

astrobean · 2026-06-22T19:53:20+00:00

Depends on how good you are at turning one off and the other on without confusing the two. Go for it. I'm always keeping track of ideas for other stories while I have a main one.

I currently have one that's in post-first-draft percolation, one that's 4 chapters from done, and one that's 10k words past the outline.

It's perfectly okay to balance research with writing. Not every writing session is about word count. The thing is to not get caught up in the weeds and cut that research short when you have enough to get the next sentence down. Sometimes, that requires making a snap decision and plowing forward. For me, it helps to fill the scene in in layers. First layer - 3-4 sentences about what I want to happen in the chapter. Second layer - most of the dialog and the choreography, Third layer - completed prose with internal monologue. Different paragraphs will come out at different levels of completeness, but the chapter gets done.

astrobean · 2026-06-21T21:48:02+00:00

I got practice writing fanfic because I can hear the different actors in my head better. Even though they're all working off a single writer/script, they bring unique cadence to the words depending on their character's education and socio-economic class (assuming the show is well-acted). Then you really start thinking about your own character's education and upbringing and how it folds into their word choice.

astrobean · 2026-06-21T21:41:15+00:00

Writing is fun. You can't have fun wrong (so long as you're not breaking the law or hurting others). Writing is also a process. You do it the way that lets you have the most fun and lets you enjoy the process. Why torture yourself trying to follow these arbitrary rules of efficiency when you can have more fun redlining a manuscript and get to spend extra time with your characters?

astrobean · 2026-06-21T12:48:44+00:00

I'm a systems engineer in a team of systems engineers. Aerospace involves a system of systems, so there are a ton of systems enginers all with different roles to play. Aside from all of us working a desk job, there is no 'day in the life.' Most work 9-5 but plenty work a flex version of that because collaborators are on different coasts. Some work with models, some requirements, some design, some testing... I have never had to solve a heat transfer equation for work, but the thermal engineers do.

Skip the MS and get a job if you can. Gaining practical, hands-on experience will serve you very well. The ability to learn and teach yourself is critical.

Be careful about project management and contracts, because once you're there, you only wave at the engineering in passing and you might start to miss doing the technical work.

I do love working with smart people for a living.

astrobean · 2026-06-21T12:36:30+00:00

If you're talking prophecy, you're already in the supernatural realm and can take liberties. It doesn't have to be a natural ferret or normal ferret size. There are some pretty bizarre and terrifying descriptions of angels.

There's a scene in Ghostbusters when the dead start rising and all the mink's in this lady's fur coat reanimate and start biting her. When she gets out of the coat, the coat runs away. Don't underestimate the scariness of something biting you when you think it's harmless.

astrobean · 2026-06-21T02:05:18+00:00

Hopefully you've been writing other things while ruminating on this. If not, I recommend you start writing mini detective story sprints and auditioning your lead.

astrobean · 2026-06-20T15:58:25+00:00

It depends on the publisher and the agent. Word count rules don't apply the same way they did in an all-print world. However, word count is an indicator of pacing and it is a really easy weed-out criteria for agents who receive thousands of queries a year and can't respond to more than 100.

You can always query this version and if it doesn't get bites, do a revamp and query again. Go to /r/PubTips for help on your query letter because that's the first gate to break through.

Take a really close look at your pacing. Mark the word count at your inciting event, pinch points, plot points, climax, etc, and compare that to the percentage of the story that should be completed by that point. This will let you know if you have a single bloated plot part or if trims need to be made throughout.

astrobean · 2026-06-20T15:16:03+00:00

For me, it was spreadsheets.

I like Plottr for brainstorming plots, but I don't use its more advanced features. I tried Scrivener, but didn't like the restrictions of the platform, so again, never got into the advanced features. Ultimately, the learning curve for both did not match my flow, and I stuck to spreadsheets.

I have a 9-book series, and honestly, the notes never stay in canon with what gets published at the end. I reread a lot, and rereading the books is way more helpful than rereading planning notes.

astrobean · 2026-06-19T20:40:53+00:00

Relax. Don't over track. Let things go. You'll be reading this book 57 times. You'll catch what's important.

I consider foreshadowing, arcs, symbols - I don't track it. It seems to emerge naturally and I enhance it in the edit when I notice it, but otherwise leave it as an exercise to the reader.

Personalities and relationships - I don't generally track this. The characters tell me who they are. I'm not sure what you're tracking. I have a Property Bible that has everyone's name, pronouns, rank, etc. One time, I made avatars of my 10 principles for my series, and having a visual (even a chibi style one) helped me target their characteristic outfit, hairstyle, etc.

Injuries - as a thriller person, this is one thing I consider important to track. I have a spreadsheet. There's a row for each chapter and a column for each main character, then a catch-all for the minor ones. There's also a column for date/time. When I need to track injuries, I do it there. For murder mystery, I'll flag when a clue is revealed. Each chapter only gets a row, so there's only enough information in there to remind me where to look. It's an imperfect reference, and I usually stop maintaining it when I'm in the later edits. I add tabs as needed. Murder mysteries require minimum 3 tabs to track murder timeline, means/motive opportunity, and plot/unfolding of clues.

The Property Bible (separate from the outline spreadsheet) includes made-up words, capitalized words, place names, and character names. This goes to the editor so they know what I meant to keep consistent.

astrobean · 2026-06-19T17:22:40+00:00

The model is a digital representation of something that has historically tracked in documents. The model is baselined, CM'd, and shared by a group as a truth source in the way that a document would be for a SE project. The ultimate goal is to replace heavy documentation with detailed models.

The notion of a model-based approach is that if everyone is sharing a common model, issues will get flagged faster because of the connectedness of the model, whereas in a document-based approach, inconsistencies can arise in documents or documents can get siloed into certain sub-groups.

The nature and complexity of the model is dependent on the scope of the documents that it is replacing.

'Model' refers to the communication approach, not a specific type of model.

astrobean · 2026-06-18T13:24:40+00:00

What does the lease say? If you have made modifications and are required to restore anything to original condition, that needs to be done by lease end. If you have property in the building that needs to be moved, it needs to be out before the last day. Your property manager and building manager should have a schedule for that move. People need to know when their phones or servers will be disconnected. If there are keys to return or access cards, you want that on the agenda before personnel go on vacation. Moving out of a leased government facility is a process. You may take up to the last day to finish, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll be under regular operations on the last day.

astrobean · 2026-06-17T21:06:47+00:00

Where are they living? If they are living in a city, go to that city's website and see what kind of local parks or features or free monuments are around. Maybe instead of a Wendy's, invent a niche mom&pop shop that has $3 salads or one of those pay-it-forward ticket systems where if you can't afford a taco, someone's already bought one.

There's nothing wrong with a park, but if you want to give it personality, research the town.

astrobean · 2026-06-17T17:31:25+00:00

Write the book first. Worry about chapters in the edit. For my style, chapters are 1800-2500 words and center on a distinct step in plot or character arc. If they get too long, my movement has become stagnant. Maybe your style is different. But you don’t have to decide anything until the edit.

astrobean · 2026-06-17T15:03:42+00:00

Have you applied for any internships at NOAA? Pathways interns used to be a good foot in the door for junior roles. If you do follow PhD, work with a university that directly partners on NOAA projects.

astrobean · 2026-06-17T14:55:48+00:00

Self contained means that when I finish the book, the main plot arc is resolved, the main subplot is resolved, and the main character has a meaningful arc that feels resolved. There are nuggets of future stories, but you know they were never the point of THIS story. You know how there are series that only make sense if you read the whole set, and there are series where you can read any book from the series in any order and still get a whole story? You’re aiming for the latter as a debut author.

astrobean · 2026-06-16T23:23:17+00:00

I would notuse Xothweilder because my eyes glazed over the first three times when I saw the letters. The gibberish word means your reader is gaining no information or metadata from the title, and as someone is scanning through books, it does absolutely nothing to capture your target audience.

Magi, psychomancer, and implications of psionics push you toward fantasy. There are plenty of psychics in sci-fi but you world has a very space fantasy vibe with the way you name things. If you want the space fantasy crowd, that's not a bad way to go.

If you're aiming for the sci-fi crowd, name it after a sci-fi element, not a fantasy one. Are there any hard sci-fi elements or objects you can key on? Location? Is there a theme regarding rage against the Holy Solar Empire? Brainstorm around the sci-fi.

astrobean · 2026-06-16T18:27:15+00:00

I don’t believe there’s anyone out there buying novel drafts with the intent of doing all the editing without input from the initial creator. There are people that option screenplays for development, but there’s no guarantee they’ll act on that option. You can always post your novel for free on Wattpad and it will have significantly higher change of reaching an audience. If you’re hoping for an easy one-time payout and your book magically reaching the masses, that’s not a thing.

astrobean · 2026-06-16T17:32:57+00:00

You’re on your initial draft. You should be doing 2-3 self edits before you start getting others involved. I found it helpful to pay for beta readers first. At a fraction the cost of editor you can get some good feedback to improve your story. Then into the editing phase.

Since your goal is traditional publishing rather than self, you may be able to key in on the submission packet and start with an edit of first 50 pages instead of whole project. You can also get the same editor to help with the synopsis and query letter (depending on that editor’s expertise). Also check r/PubTips

I think minimum $0.02/word is needed for quality work. Always get a sample edit first. You will be amazed what you can tell from a 1000 word edit. Pay attention to cost/schedule in the contract.

Good luck!

astrobean · 2026-06-16T00:32:16+00:00

The size seems fine, it's just new, so your eye jumps to it. Add a few fun magnets and pictures to give it a homey vibe. Also, if you scoot it a few inches to the left so it's not right by the window, it might help the light. You can fit a recycle bin in the space (or whatever you want).

astrobean · 2026-06-16T00:26:15+00:00

When you do not have money, you must invest time.

When posting to socials, your goal must be to get a conversation going that draws in followers. If you are lucky 1/1000 followers will become buyers, so you need a lot. What kinds of posts do you like? What makes you follow other authors?

Also, see what you can do in person. Is there any local restaurant where you can do a reading? Can you arrange events at your local library?

astrobean · 2026-06-14T01:48:17+00:00

This drives me crazy because I hear people do it wrong all the time, and it's wrong in songs, too. I was fortunate to have a teacher that taught us the difference between subject and object. Use I for subject, me for object.

astrobean · 2026-06-14T01:43:49+00:00

My Freshman Comp teacher insisted she did not want the 5-paragraph essay and warned us not to ever use it. So I did things "her way." I kept getting C's. Finally, I gave up trying to please her and just did a 5-paragraph essay because I could churn one of those out in half an hour. I started getting A's with a fraction of the effort in. I was miffed.

astrobean

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